Mayweather vs Cotto: Can Miguel Cotto Avoid a Mental Breakdown?

Floyd Mayweather's uncle and trainer Roger Mayweather has never been known to bite his lip or double-talk much of anything, and he's his usual self when forecasting how his nephew's May 5 fight with Miguel Cotto will go.

From Chris Robinson:

"I already know what Floyd’s going to do. Cotto aint shit. Floyd’s going to stop his motherfucking ass. ... He ain't no different than Victor Ortiz. Floyd will stop him. I guarantee you he will stop him."

I would argue with the idea that Cotto "ain't no different than Victor Ortiz," since he most decidedly is mentally different than Victor Ortiz in some ways, but for one thing, Roger just says stuff, and to him everyone who isn't Floyd is no different than Victor Ortiz in that all of them will get knocked out, but there is a question about Cotto's mental fortitude still and in some roundabout way, Roger's words may have real value.

Cotto (37-2, 30 KO) was thought by many to be if not quite shot then clearly past his prime, in large part because he didn't have the mental toughness left to be a truly elite fighter anymore. He broke down against Antonio Margarito in 2008, and then again against Manny Pacquiao in 2009. He didn't quit in either fight, but he wanted to. Against Margarito, he took knees until his then-trainer (also his uncle) Evangelista Cotto pulled him out of the fight, and against Pacquiao he was in full retreat mode before referee Kenny Bayless mercifully stopped it early in the 12th round.

Ortiz is of course a complete train wreck nutjob above the shoulders, which Cotto is not, but really, it's more about reaction when frustrated or being beaten up. Whereas Ortiz is all "I don't deserve this" or throwing absurd headbutts, Cotto more quietly breaks down. Look, I'm a huge Cotto fan, but the guys he's fought since Margarito in '08 aren't exactly a tough slate outside of Pacquiao and Joshua Clottey. Michael Jennings, Yuri Foreman, and Ricardo Mayorga weren't exactly going to test him.

Floyd tests anyone, and I don't just mean physically and he's 42-0 and there is no blueprint, yada yada. I don't care how good you are, a guy like Mayweather makes you look and feel worse than your best, I think. He destroys guys mentally before he does the job physically. We're all (mostly, anyway) assuming that Miguel just is not good enough to win this fight, but is he good enough to not be broken down? Are we going to see Cotto giving up on himself at some point and wanting out?